I am about to purchase a Tandem Island and plan on storing for the winter on a Harken Hoist. I've seen a couple of examples in this forum and am concluding that upside down may be the best way. Does anyone know if the straps that come with the hoist would be a good idea by themselves? They seem a little narrow. (not concerned with the strength, but their ability to spread the load on the boat, not dent the hull.) Would I be better off building a cross-member setup? Maybe I am over-analyzing all the talk of dented hulls??

Storing upside down via the Harken Hoister has worked very well for us. The photo below is from when we first did the installation in our Florida townhouse in March of 2011, and to date there have been no ill effects. I do supplement the Harken supporting straps with a pair of simple ratchet straps (orange - see photo). They are tensioned just enough to share support duty with the black Harken straps - thus distributing the hull weight across 8 points on the gunwales instead of 4, and minimizing any stretching of the Harken block & tackle line.

Thanks Intents and bluehen for the input. I'll let you know how it works out. I like the idea of the extra straps, but my garage has an 11 foot ceiling. Trying to avoid using a ladder if I can. I noticed you dont hang your Amas with the boat.

Our garage ceiling height is about 10 feet, so a 3-step stool is tall enough. You probably would need a short ladder to do the supplemental straps.

You're right about the amas. Ours is a 1-car garage, so in order to get the TI up above the open garage door, it has to fit between the opener motor and the door track. Since the garage is only about 1 foot longer than the TI (with its rudder), the hull needs to be lifted to facilitate access to our washer & dryer. The trailer is several feet shorter, so it's no problem, and the amas are shorter still.

If you have a 2 (or more) car garage, I would expect that you'd easily be able to hang the TI either lengthwise in one of the bays or even crosswise behind the door opener motor(s). In that case, I'd suggest disconnecting the amas and storing them atop the inverted hull, along with the mast & sail. That's where our mast & sail are kept -- we just don't have quite enough height to put the amas up there and still open the door.

It's lived there, other than when it's out, since April 2010, and I have noticed no ill affects. I didn't use the straps, but built a narrow wood platform, to keep the amas, sail, etc, next to the boat. With straps, the extra stuff on the hoist would kind of pull up around the boat. I would definitely store it upside down. If you wrap the straps around the bottom, you would definitely notice some hull deformation.

I will note that about a month ago I got the Harken Hoister replaced under warranty. Luckily it's a lifetime warranty. One of the wheels in the tackle or traveler (whatever it's called) was breaking all up. I believe it had been doing this for quite some time, as when I installed the new one, the effort to hoist was a lot easier than I had remembered in the past. I didn't notice it until I saw plastic pieces popping out every time I hoisted. That and it became nearly impossible to hoist.

I have had my TI now for 3 years and have stored my TI right way up in Melbourne over the winter + period (6-7months) of the year using the straps that come with the Harken 'kit'. Never have I had an issue.

Gee Paul, I have to say (having been a Melburnian for the first 20 years of my life) that up here in Forster, there is no "season" where I would store my TI, and I have taken in about 70 outings since June last year.

I dare say that if you got some breathable waders, a rain jacket and maybe some gloves, you would find many more days suitable for sailing.

I second the breathable waders.....took my AI out in 40degree weather last week and im a south carolinian lol....befor this i lived in boca raton tho so i feel you on the florida weather thing......missing sofla that much more with my AI